Early Bloomtime For Jades

Both the C. ovata and the 'Gollum' are beginning to flower. This is about 6 weeks ahead of the normal here in 9b. If our heat keeps up, there will be no star flowers for Christmas this year.

C. ovata

And here is 'Gollum' with no flowers open yet.

I'm glad that you seent those pictures along, yes they are certainly early. Mine have not set buds yet. They are waiting for it to cool down at night. Norma

I have both of these plants and they have never bloomed. How do you ever get them to? Those plants are georgeous. Debk

Oh,oh,oh! Surprise! Something to look forward to. What pretty, delicate flowers.

How to get them to bloom?

They do best when they live outside.

I do know that's not possible in a lot of zones, I lived in the Chicago area for years and never got my indoor jades to bloom. Then one year I put them outside on the patio for the summer (acclimate them to full sun slowly or they will sunburn which can't be repaired, the leaves will either stay on with damage or drop off eventually), got busy and brought them in just before first frost. VAVOOM......flowers.

The trick is they love sunshine and fresh air, they need to get chilled (NOT frosted) and given luck, not too much water, and a little food....you might get flowers.

A lot of experts say never to fertilize them, but I've fertilized mine with low strength fish emulsion for years and they grow very well. These are jades that are in pots, the inground jades get the same broadcast general fertilizer that goes on once a month for everything else. (One year I got a little heavy handed with the fish emulsion for the potted jades and they dropped EVERY single leaf. They were all about 3feet tall and looked pretty pathetic. After a couple of months they came out of shock and are still with me 15 years later. Be careful with the food.)

This message was edited Feb 12, 2004 7:39 AM

Great tips! I never knew they bloomed either. I've had mine for about 5 or 6 years now, but it's always been indoors.

Even with acclimation, do you think it could withstand the full sun and heat that we have here in the midwest? Or maybe should I work it up to morning sun, and afternoon shade? How warm does it need to be before you start putting it out in the spring?

I'm just guessing that it should be consistantly around 50F before you put it outside with no frost possible, after being indoors for winter. Acclimating it slowly from shade to dappled shade to sun is the best way to prevent sunburn. Probably over several weeks time.

I don't know where Lenexa is heather_v, but is it bloody hot like in Dodge(yup, born there a number of decades ago)? Here in 9b it is 85-110ish in the summers and mine are in full sun. We have little or no humidity which is how I remember southwestern Kansas. We have one big difference which is caused by the Bay influence.....we cool down at night. It may be 100 during the day, usually cools down to 50-60F at night.

I don't think the jades would mind your warmer nights, as mine lived outside in Chicago which can be HOT HUMID & BRUTALLY MUGGY HOT at night. What can you lose? Try a couple or send for some of the cuttings I offered for postage on another thread and give it a shot. Sunniest place you have this winter and outside for a test garden next year. I'd even suggest putting them in the ground for the summer, giving them evenly moist soil and then digging them up in the fall for wintering inside.

Not only are they going to bloom, they are going nutso setting flowers. Even cuttings that were taken in May are coming into flower.....gotta be our very HOT summer that spurred them on.

The fence in this image is 6' tall.

A 6 foot jade! Now that is truly amazing! I have never, ever seen a jade that tall. No wonder you trim so often! Such a beautiful plant, even when not in flower. But flowering like that is awesome! Thanks for showing us.

Roshana, I have been saying this for years. Trim them, she is doing all the right things at the right time.

Happenstance, congratulations. Finally I got proof that they flower. I have been saying this for the past 6 years.
You are doing all the right things, I live in Calif. the temps may go down to 28% in a bad winter, but they will flower, and even if they freeze back (then I don't need to prune) they will flower. Yes, they can get sunburnt, my
'Hummel's Sunset' did get burnt this year. So I know it will flower for me for sure. They will come back also from a freeze, they do so in England.

I want to thank you for sharing this with the group, no matter how many times I have said it no one would believe me. Norma

Thanks for the tips, Happenstance! I'm in the Kansas City area, where we can have temps of 100+ at times, and humidity during the summer. I've lost so many plants to the burning sun, that I guess I'm just hesitant that anything can survive it. But I'm learning how to acclimate some plants, and find other plants that like it.

I keep my jade in a south window. Maybe next summer I will try splitting out a part of it to put outside. There were actually 3 cuttings given to me at the time, and I've just always kept them together, along with any stray pieces that I trimmed or were broken off.

If I take in any more plants for the winter, I think DH will disown me! Otherwise, I would have already taken you up on the offer you posted. I've had to learn a great deal of restraint since finding this wonderful site!

Next Spring I'll be trimming the Jades on and off for shape.....just let me know and I can send you some cuttings then to try outside. That way you'll be ahead of the game with some that are used to being outside.

Oh, that is a huge Jade plant tree, I havent ever seen that big one. http://davesgarden.com/fp.php?pid=690887

That sounds great! I'll make a note to check back with you then. Thanks!

I love it! How long did it take to look like that?

Let's see.....had to go back and see which one we were talking about. That was 3 cuttings about 16" tall when I put them in the ground 4 years ago. It has been topped by 18" several times and I have pruned the front branches that want to hang over the walkway many times in the last four years.

If not controlled the Jades would take over the entire garden.
Prune, prune, prune.

Do you think that Jade could take a georgia winter outdoors? I have two in pots, really small, but in the last month, have put on 2-4 leaves each. I thought this was great until I saw your fantastic jade tree! WOW! Now that's a creature I"d love to have in my yard.

Don't think that would work. We rarely have frost here in 9b and our winter lows may only be in the upper 30's some years. I've been lucky for the past 5 growing seasons with no damage, but there is always a chance we could have an unusual cold snap.

I think it was 1991 that the entire Bay Area had a cold front move in from Alaska that took many parts of the 9 counties into the upper teens for several days. Many of the Jades turned to mush, some came back from the ground, but many didn't.

You could always try one on a protected sunny patio and see what happens depending on your individual micro-climate.

Here's an updated image of a Jade in bloom.

I've had my little jade in my little family pot for about 6 months now. Got it when it was little little. I don't know how early they can bloom, but they can grow absolutely awesomely if you neglect them a bit. :-)

Ok, so it's still little, but it's actually grown SO much.

This message was edited Nov 6, 2003 9:03 PM

I trimmed my jade two weeks ago an noticed that a couple branches were getting buds. I'd say that was pretty much on schedule. I don't know what gets them to bloom but I'd say it must have to do with either size or temperature. I have a pseudo bonsai jade plant in the house and it has never bloomed. It is the same age as the outdoor jade but it is no more than 1/20th the size.

Yea, some day my jade will get too big for it's little pot, and maybe a few years after that it'll be a big enough kid to kick out some blooms. :-)